The case of Merry Minnie highlights just one of many issues that existed in keeping record of pedigrees prior to DNA being available as a resource. Occassionally even today breeders discover that a colt at his mother's side matured a bit early and impregnated a pasture mate he shouldn't have, but prior to DNA, that discovery may have never occurred. When spotted horses first became popular, there is speculation that other breeds were crossed in to bring the color and given fake pedigrees so that they would be allowed to be registred. The International Heritage Horse Association attempts to bar horses who don't "color trace", but there are likely just as many erroneus horses who could theoretically "color trace" who don't have the correct pedigree through human error, sneaky colts and sometimes downright fraud... as in the curious case of Merry Minnie! There is talk of talented colts and fillies back in the day being given pedigrees attributing them to "namebrand" sires to give that sire a boost regardless of their actual parentage, as today you see colts and fillies culled out of show training and having their papers pulled to be sold as grade because they won't make it in the show ring and the stallion owners don't want to lower their point standings. There are also rumors about some of the great stallions that founded our breed being part English Carriage horse and another being the result of a confused handler accidentally breeding a mare back to her sire. As you can probably tell from my extensive collection of walking horse history on this website, I am an avid fan of history, horses and the study of pedigrees, but let's not forget that the original horses who founded the breed came from obscurity. Great horses don't ALWAYS come from great pedigrees. There are statistically more culls by every World Grand Champion than there are champions. However, great breeders make it their job to carefully study pedigree (more acurately, the traits passed by the horses in those lines), conformation and movement in order to design crosses that IMPROVE the breed. My (probably unpopular) opinion is that I'd rather have a superior quality grade horse who checked ALL of my other boxes than an inferior quality registered horse...but I do feel registration adds value to my foals and offers them some protection by allowing them to be traced back to me so I do seek mares who are registered.
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